Fiji Arthropods XII. Edited by Neal L. Evenhuis & Daniel J. Bickel. Bishop Museum Occa sional Papers 102: 33 –48 (2009). A checklist of Fiji Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera) Michael R. W ilson Department of Biodiversity & Systematic Biology, Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, Cardiff, CF10 3NP. Wales, UK; email: [email protected] Abstract . The auchenorrhyncha (hemiptera) species (leafhoppers, planthoppers, cicadas, and spittlebugs) found in Fiji are tabulated from literature records. a total of 299 species are known, mostly from the island of Viti levu; other large islands are under- recorded and many new records are to be expected. The taxonomic composition and island distributions are given and discussed. INTRODUCTION The auchenorrhyncha (hemiptera) species (leafhoppers, planthoppers, cicadas, and spit - tlebugs) are well represented in the Fiji islands with a total of 299 species currently known. Most are recorded from the island of Viti levu, other large islands are under- recorded and many new records are to be expected. arguably the first significant collecting of the auchenorrhyncha in Fiji was made by Frederick Muir who visited Viti levu in connection with his studies on sugarcane-associ - ated species. Many early records resulted from his samples. later extensive collections were made by the Bishop Museum (including visits by various well-known collectors such as n.l.h. Krauss and e.c. Zimmerman from the period 1924 to 1941). The recent sampling by the Fiji arthropod survey over the archipelago is likely to greatly expand our knowledge of the auchenorrhyncha fauna, especially given the paucity of records from islands such as Vanua levu. For this checklist all the available literature has been reviewed and the species recorded in Fiji have been tabulated (appendix 1). species names have been updated where appropriate. an earlier version of the list (Wilson & evenhuis 2007) was published as part of the series of ‘checklists of the Terrestrial arthropods of Fiji’ series. in this cur - rent list, island distributions have also been added as far as possible. Table 1 provides the numbers of species from each island group. Most are island endemics and currently few are known from more than one island group. Fulgoromorpha The Fulgoromorpha (planthopper) families were reviewed by Fennah (1950), based on the extensive collections of the Bishop Museum from 1924 to 1941. Fennah recognised 52 genera and 177 species from Fiji and described 98 species. he noted 14 genera as being confined to Fiji, the remainder being also found in samoa, Philippines, indonesia, and australia. it is quite likely, however, that some generic concepts may now be differently applied. 1. Contribution No. 2009-003 to the NSF-Fiji Arthropod Survey. 3 Ta ble 1. Taxonomic composition of the Auchenorrhyncha fauna of Fiji and numbers of each familiy in each island group. F = unknown locality in Fiji; V = 4 Viti Levu ; v = Vanua Le vu; K Kadavu ; T = Ta veuni; O = Ovalau; L = Lau g roup ; R = Rotuma. Family No. species (no. F V v K T O L R No. multi- endemic) % island species endemic B I Fulgoromorpha S H Cixiidae 26(24) 92% 21(20) 1 4 6 1 6 O P Delphacidae 33(11) 33% 2 21(4) 3 2 9 11 2 12 M Meenoplidae 5 (3) 60% 5 - U Derbidae 48(47) 96% 1 40(38) 2 2 8 7 1 7 S E Achilidae 9(9) 100% 9 1 1 U Tropiduchidae 17(16) 95% 6 3 9 2 M Lophopidae 1(0) 1 1 1 O C Dictyopharidae 1 (1) 100% 1 C Issidae 1(1) 100% 1 1 A S I Nogodinidae 14 (14) 100% 3 1 2 7 1 1 O Ricaniidae 37(37) 100% 5 2 4 27 1 N A Flatidae 1 1 - L Total no. 193(152) 79% 111 6 8 33 67 5 37 P A Cicadomorpha P E Cicadoidea 20(20) 100% 12 5 1 4 3 1 1 4 R S Cercopidae 1(1) 100% 1 - : Aphrophoridae 12 9 3 1 1 N o . Cicadellidae 73(46) 62% 8 62(43) 9(4) 3(1) 1(0) 11(5) 13(5) - 1 Total no. 106 0 2 , Totals 299 11 200 21 13 6 47 81 6 52 2 0 0 9 Fiji Arthropods–XII: Wilson—Checklist of Fiji Auchenorrhyncha 35 Table 2: numbers of species on each island group and proportion of endemic species. Island (or island group) No of species/ endemic % endemic Viti Levu 200 (153) 76 Vanua Levu 16 (14) 87 Kaduvu 13 (9) 75 Taveuni 6 (5) 83 Ovalua 46 (37) 80 Lau group 81 (69) 85 Rotuma 6 (5) 83 Fennah also noted that the species appeared largely endemic to Fiji. however, most Delphacidae species are found more widely in the Pacific and beyond, with the notable exceptions of the tribe Ugyopini, whose members are all endemic. The locality records given in appendix 1 come from Fennah (1950). The collections studied by him included almost nothing from large islands such as Vanua levu and Taveuni so it is certain that new records and species will be added from these and other localities in the island group. The number of families of planthoppers represented in the Fijian islands is rather high, with 13 from the 21 recognised families worldwide. Many species of issidae, as recognised by Fennah, have recently been reassigned to the nogodinidae (Gnezdilov, 2007). There are, however, some interesting families lacking in Fiji from those present in new Guinea, indonesia, and se asia. There are no eurybrachidae or Fulgoridae, although all of these are represented by a diversity of genera in new Guinea, australia, and se asia. only one species of the family Flatidae is known and one new species of Dictyopharidae was found in Viti levu by me in april 2007 and seems to represent the first record of this family from the islands (emeljanov & Wilson, in prep.). The Fulgoromorpha families are likely to offer much scope for biogeographical analysis in the region but much more basic taxonomic research has to be conducted first. one exception is the lophopidae where biogeographical patterns have been analysed (soulier-Perkins, 2000). The Makota group (five genera) all show evidence of endemici - ty to islands in the southwest Pacific. The only lophopid genus known from Fiji is Buxtoniella (recorded on Viti levu and Vanua levu as well as in samoa). Cicadomorpha The major families of the cicadomorpha, cicadidae (cicadas), cercopidae (spittlebugs), aphrophoridae (spittlebugs), and cicadellidae (leafhoppers), are all represented in Fiji. The absence of the Membracidae (treehoppers) is somewhat surprising but many species are rather limited in their distribution. The cicadidae are the best known of all auchenorrhyncha groups in Fiji [following work by Duffels (1988)] and more widely in the Pacific [reviewed by de Boer & Duffels (1997)]. Cicadidae The indo-Pacific cicada fauna is a composite of the oriental and australian fauna (de Boer & Duffels, 1996; who have provided a thorough analysis of the indo-Pacific cicad - as). all cicada species in Fiji are endemic (Duffels, 1988) with some island subspecies. The Fiji islands as a whole may be regarded as an area of endemism, with the genus Aceropyga endemic to the islands (de Boer & Duffels, 1996). They argue that the present genera have evolved on isolated island arc fragments. 36 BISHOP MUSEUM OCCASIONAL PAPERS: No. 102, 2009 Cicadellidae Knowledge of the cicadellid (leafhopper) fauna comes largely from the revision by linnavuori (1960) which, like the study by Fennah (1950), was largely based on speci - mens from the Bishop Museum. like Fennah’s, his conclusions were tentative since inten - sive collecting had not at that time been carried out on most islands— the majority of species were only known from Viti levu. he found that 75% of the species were endem - ic with around 10% common cosmopolitian species. The remainder seemed to be species also occurring in samoa and in Micronesia. he concluded that as far as cicadellids were concerned the fauna of Micronesia was of oriental Region origin and Fiji also derived its fauna from this region. Cercopidae Despite the family being very well represented in the oriental Region, only one species of cercopid, Nesaphrogeneia vitiensis Kirkaldy, is known from Fiji. however, populations of this taxon from different islands appear to be distinctly different morphologically and may represent new species (M.R. Wilson, unpubl.). Aphrophoridae The aphrophoridae (cercopoidea) of the western Pacific islands, from the solomons to Polynesia have been covered in a series of studies by hamilton: Polynesia, (hamilton, 1980a); solomon islands (hamilton, 1980b), new caledonia and loyalty islands (hamilton, 1981a) and Fiji, new hebrides (now Vanuatu) and Banks islands (hamilton, 1981b). While the spittlebug fauna of the solomon islands form a link between new Guinea and the faunas of Polynesia, there exists a range of endemic genera and species that have dispersed eastwards in the island chain. only one genus, Nesaphrestes, is recog - nised in Fiji with 12 endemic species, 9 of which are found on Viti levu. however, the genus is also found in Vanuatu, where 5 species are recognised. hamilton (1981b) pro - vided a key to the Fiji species based largely on external coloration, lengths and propor - tions. While he briefly described the aedeagal structure in most species, he unfortunately gave no illustrations in these papers. ACkNOwleDgmeNTs i am indebted to neal evenhuis for his hospitality during a visit to hawaii in May 2006, when this list was commenced and for his comments on the text. i thank Manfred asche (humboldt Museum, Berlin) who kindly updated the species names in the Delphacidae. This paper is a contribution to the UK Darwin initiative project 15/007 Focus for Fiji: insect inventories for biodiversity. lITeRATURe CITeD Ashmead, w.H.